


Detective Joss Carter, NYPD Officer Who Arrested The Head of 'HR', Dies at 41

by KillClaudio



Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: BAMF Women, Gen, Obituaries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-23
Updated: 2019-10-23
Packaged: 2020-11-22 20:04:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20879930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KillClaudio/pseuds/KillClaudio
Summary: As both a soldier and a police officer she dedicated her life to upholding the law and protecting the innocent.





	Detective Joss Carter, NYPD Officer Who Arrested The Head of 'HR', Dies at 41

**Author's Note:**

  * For [GlassesOfJustice](https://archiveofourown.org/users/GlassesOfJustice/gifts).

Detective Joss Carter, a veteran and an NYPD homicide detective of nine years, who was pivotal in bringing down organized crime in the city, was killed in the line of duty on November 19. She was 41. 

The New York Police Department confirmed that she died during a shooting incident outside the third precinct on Tuesday. 

Detective Carter had been pursuing the notorious head of 'HR', an organized crime syndicate that has been terrorizing the city for several years. In spite of the organization being dismantled earlier this year, the man running it had never been identified. However, in the early hours of Friday morning Detective Carter arrested Alonzo Quinn, the mayor's chief of staff, to the shock of the political community. Quinn is currently under guard in FBI headquarters, pending his trial later this month. It's understood that a belligerent former member of HR decided to take revenge on behalf of his boss. The shooter is currently still at large. 

Jocelyn Penda Carter was born in Manhattan on March 7, 1972, to Robert and Sandra Carter. Her father was a U.S. Army Staff Sergeant and her mother was a social worker. 

From the first it seemed Detective Carter was destined to follow in her father's footsteps. "Joss excelled in all her classes," says Sara King, 72, who taught Detective Carter through high school. "As long as you didn't ask her to do algebra. She was such a sweet girl, but underneath she was tough. I remember a boy who got fresh with some of the girls in class got such a tongue-lashing he wouldn't look her in the eye for a week. I can't say I was surprised when she joined up."

But her friends remember her as a fun-loving girl who was always ready to party. "Joss really knew how to have a good time," laughs Tina Ross, 41. "I think half the guys in our class were in love with her, but she wouldn't look at any of them twice. Too busy yelling at the DJ to turn the music up."

On the same day that she graduated, Detective Carter enlisted in the U.S. Army. "She didn't say a word to anyone," recalls her mother, Sandra Carter. "Just went down to the recruiting office alone and came back with her papers. Joss was always independent. You couldn't tell her anything once she's made up her mind."

Detective Carter served two tours in Iraq, specializing in human intelligence collection. By 1999 she had risen to the rank of staff sergeant. It was during this time that she met and married Paul Carter, a fellow service member. They have one son, Taylor, born in 1997. The couple divorced in 2006. "Those were tough times for Joss," says Mrs Carter. "She hated leaving Taylor behind, but her work was so important to her."

A second deployment followed as a senior military interrogator, first at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan and then at Camp Liberty in Iraq. 

"Joss was so good at it because she understood people," recalls warrant officer Amy Hernandez, who served with Detective Carter at Camp Liberty. "She could walk into an interrogation room and after five minutes she knew everything about a person. Whether they were motivated by money or political ideals or just protecting their family, she knew exactly what to say to them. And she was sincere. You could feel her conviction."

But according to Warrant Officer Cory Daniels, who also served at Camp Liberty, Detective Carter could be harsh when the situation demanded it. "I've seen her zero in on a detainee's weaknesses like a goddamned nuclear missile. Sometimes when she came out of there they were sobbing. She was ruthless."

In December 2003 Detective Carter took part in Operation Comet, a counterinsurgency measure aimed at rooting out the infrastructure delivering arms and explosives to Al-Qaeda. She was part of the expeditionary force investigating caches of weapons in the desert west of Fallujah, where she was injured when a landmine exploded under her vehicle. She was awarded a Purple Heart in March 2004.

Her commanding officer at Camp Liberty, Chief Warrant Officer Robert Woods, said in a statement that Detective Carter had been "a powerful force for good in the world. Thousands of people owe her their lives and they will never know it."

In spite of using her military sponsorship to pursue academic studies and passing the bar exam in 2004, Carter gave it up to join the police force instead. 

"Yeah, she always had a thing for hunting bad guys," recalls her ex-husband, Paul Carter. "She couldn't even walk past a guy littering without reading him the riot act. I always felt sorry for anyone who tried to commit a crime on Joss's beat."

Indeed, it immediately became clear that the criminal element would have a fight on its hands. Detective Carter graduated top of her class at the Academy, and her second career would be no less exemplary than the first. In her first year on the job she earned a commendation for successfully convincing two low-level drug runners to turn on the organization they were working for. "She wasn't even supposed to be working the case," says Michael Zhou, her captain at the time. "I left the guys alone in there for ten minutes and when I came back Carter had just gone right in and started going to town on them."

The refusal to take no for an answer would be a hallmark of Detective Carter's career. After two years working as a patrol officer and a further year of investigative duties, Carter made homicide detective in 2007. She immediately threw herself into tackling organized crime in the city, chasing down the perpetrators of armed robberies and revenge killings. But there was always more to be done. 

"Carter was the walking embodiment of 'If you want something done right, do it yourself," says Sherri LaBlanca, who worked with Detective Carter in the Special Operations Division. "She was Homicide, but department lines didn't mean that much to Carter. She couldn't resist poking around in other people's cases. If there was something that needed doing, she'd do it. If there was someone who needed help, she'd help them."

"Carter had a nose for trouble," says Detective Lionel Fusco, her partner on the force since 2011. "She could find it anywhere. One time the captain tried to stick her on desk duty after she'd been shot, and two hours later she got bored and started trying to solve one of my cases for me. And she nailed it, too." 

Among Detective Carter's many high-profile collars was her apprehension of notorious serial killer Alex Declan, who had murdered eight people and stolen their identities before he was finally run to ground on Owen Island. Detective Carter drove out there in one of the worst storms New York has seen for a century, along with narcotics detective Cal Beecher, risking life and limb to bring him in.

"She was extraordinary," recalls Harold Gull, 55, who was marooned on the island with Declan during the storm. "He had a gun trained on me and he was making some bizarre speech about looking for his true identity, and she just walked right in and shot him. If she hadn't reacted so quickly, I'd certainly be dead."

She was also temporarily assigned to the FBI task force hunting the 'Man in the Suit', where she quickly proved invaluable. Brian Moss worked with Detective Carter during that time, and remembers her extraordinary dedication to her work. "She was here at all hours of the day and night. I remember her taking phone calls and chasing down leads all the time. She just seemed to come out with amazing information at just the right time."

But surely Detective Carter's most admirable campaign is the way she fought tirelessly to root out corruption from the heart of the NYPD. Starting in 2011 with her arrest of Louis Azarello, she apprehended half a dozen corrupt officers who were part of the group known as 'HR'. No matter how hard the NYPD tried to kill the beast, they couldn't cut off the head. The breakthrough finally came last week, when Detective Carter convinced Russian mafia boss Peter Yogorov to testify against his former ally. Confidential sources in the NYPD state that a spectacular firefight ensued when Carter tried to obtain a warrant – a judge and three police officers have been confirmed dead – but Alonzo Quinn was safely delivered into police custody on Friday. The final demise of HR may prove to be Detective Carter's legacy.

"She was good people," says Detective Fusco. "A good cop, a good mom. A good friend. She believed in second chances. She believed in people, even when they were too messed up to believe in themselves."

Detective Carter's death is a great loss to every person in this city who cares about justice, but an even greater one to the people who knew her.

It's only fitting that her final tribute should come from her son. "We used to joke that my mom wanted to fight everyone else's battles for them," says Taylor Carter. "Like she was trying to fix every problem in the city. But she would always say, if the world makes you angry or scared, the best way to feel better is to fight back. So do something. Stand up."


End file.
